Monday, April 30, 2018

With more than half of its ad revenue attributed to video now, Twitter is announcing more than 30 video content deals at this year's NewFronts event. The post Twitter to launch 8 new pilot series supported by branded in-stream video sponsorships appeared first on Marketing Land.

Contributor Casey Wuestefeld reminds programmatic native advertisers that context is key to realizing this format's potential. The post Native isn’t display. Stop treating it like it is. appeared first on Marketing Land.

Previously called Promoted Stories, the new Story Ads remain within the app's Discover feed but are now available via auction-based bidding. The post Snapchat rebrands Promoted Stories as Story Ads & makes them available via its self-serve ads manager appeared first on Marketing Land.

Here's our recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web. The post Marketing Day: Digital video ad spend, Forrester report on media tech & YouTube TV ads appeared first on Marketing Land.

The IAB's latest video advertising study finds two-thirds of advertisers will shift budgets from TV to digital. The post Digital video ad spend keeps rising, with social media (i.e., Facebook) set to see most growth appeared first on Marketing Land.

SMX Advanced is unique in so many ways. It’s the premier experts-only conference programmed by the team at Search Engine Land, the publication of record for search marketers. It attracts the biggest group of the world’s most sophisticated marketers for three days of learning and sharing. And it...

Spending on traditional media agencies is declining, the report says, CMOs are leading customer-facing efforts and content-based targeting is coming back. The post Forrester’s first report on media tech/services spending shows customer experience and AI are driving budgets appeared first on...

Getting a visitor to add a product to their shopping cart isn’t enough. Statistically, 77 percent of online shopping carts are abandoned before the sale is completed. Savvy marketers don’t count those sales as an immediate loss because they know it is now possible to recoup 10 percent to 30 percent of those sales.

But why are carts abandoned? Are there common practices for re-engaging those customers? How can you improve your current practices and increase sales and ROI?

All these sales could have been saved if the companies visited were using re-engagement campaigns, also known as retargeting or remarketing. Remarketing takes several forms, such as internal remarketing ads, external ads, and triggered follow-up email from systems, such as Oracle Eloqua or Oracle Responsys.

Why Speed Matters

Typically, data integrations sync every four to 24 hours. Waiting hours to send a cart recovery email is less effective than taking immediate action. Also, when a prospect is on your website, and you can’t leverage the data within your analytics and marketing automation solutions to make a better experience, you’re missing out on an opportunity to connect with your prospect.

In a recent A/B test, two groups were sent identical cart or application recovery emails. One group received the email immediately upon abandonment, while the other was sent 24 hours later. The results were overwhelmingly in favor of immediate action. The email sent right away saw a 46 percent increase in open rates and a 30 percent increase in recovered cart sales.

A Better and Faster Way

After five years of working on Adobe Analytics, Eloqua and Responsys integrations (formerly Omniture Genesis) that synced data every 24 hours, Enautics was approached by Oracle to build the official replacement for their slower integrations. The first thing we addressed with the Adobe and Oracle engineering teams was speed.

To solve the problem of cart abandonment, we created SegmentSync, a web application that bi-directionally syncs data between Adobe Analytics and Eloqua or Responsys as often as every 30 minutes.

That means that abandoned cart reminder emails will land in the abandoner inbox within 30 minutes of an incomplete application or shopping cart purchase, greatly increasing the chances of recovering the sale.

Let’s Look at the Math

If a B2B online purchase has an average order size of $1,000 and 10 people start a purchase per day, your company could expect at least seven cart abandonments a day (remembering that 77 percent abandonment statistic). That’s about 210 abandoners per month. By emailing them 24 hours after they abandon, you can expect up to 20 percent to be recovered. 210 x 20% = 42 x $1,000 will generate $42,000 in recovered orders.

Sending a recovery email to the prospects within 30 minutes could mean saving 30% of the 210 abandoners. This will increase overall sales to $63,000 per month (210 x 30% = 63 x $1,000). You would be generating an additional $21,000 per month by sending the recovery email much faster.

Speed = Sales

It’s clear from the data that the key to recovered sales from cart or application abandonment is speed. Without doubt, prospects in the solution comparison or product consideration stage are more likely to purchase when reminded of their abandonment within 30 minutes.

According to the Digital Forensics Research Lab (DFRL), tweeting 72 times a day is suspicious, and more than 144 tweets per day seems very suspicious.

The BuzzFeed News team discovered one bot was hitting 584 tweets in one day.

While their editor’s tweets looked more like this:

Twitter bots are created to influence user behavior and perception. It’s important your brand is authentic, trustworthy, and human when engaging with users on Twitter.

Verified? The rise and fall of the blue checkmark

Originally, Twitter would add a blue checkmark to verify your account as a response to numerous impersonation attempts. Here is an example:

Twitter’s help page states that the badge is there to ensure the “account of public interest is authentic.”

Simple, right?

This is still the case, but the process is more open and now under scrutiny. In 2016, they announced an application process. In 2017, they suspended verification altogether.

Verification was meant to authenticate identity & voice but it is interpreted as an endorsement or an indicator of importance. We recognize that we have created this confusion and need to resolve it. We have paused all general verifications while we work and will report back soon

Now you can tell your story, share your updates, and still provide engaging content.

And if an expanded character count wasn’t enough for you, Twitter recently released a thread feature to allow for a longer narrative and more in-depth story.

Threads are useful for events with a series of updates, a how-to with a series of steps, an interview with multiple questions, and a wide variety of other scenarios.

These new features will equip your brand to present valid and engaging information to your users in Twitter’s current ecosystem.

Conclusion

Let’s face it.

Twitter has had a rough few months.

Slowed growth. Bots. Fake news.

It seems everyone is the first to criticize the network.

As a marketer, you might be wondering, “Does it still play an integral of a role in my marketing strategy as it once did?”

Our answer: yes…but only if you know how to use it correctly and exploit the network’s key strengths.

By understanding Twitter’s strengths (and weaknesses), you can still use the network to drive long-term growth for your business.

After all, your customers are still on there. You should be too.

Twitter serves as a powerful medium to provide real-time updates and immediate customer service resolutions for your customers.
They are seeking direct and transparent information, which you can easily provide on Twitter.

They type of content you share can also affect your success. Video has emerged as a leading form of content on Twitter, and consumers are eating it up.

And remember, your customers aren’t the only ones on Twitter either.

Brands are using the platform to source leads, find partners, and network with influencers like never before.

The network has evolved, too.

With the right plan in place, you can make your Twitter marketing strategy an impactful part of your business’ marketing strategy.